The original discovery of these quartz crystals in 2004 was so unusual that it was actually documented in a major industry publication. Each specimen contains three types of inclusions: oil, gas and water. The yellow that you see is petroleum, the gas bubbles are primarily methane and the colorless inclusions are water that was incapable of mixing with another component. Such unique inclusions are exciting enough for rock hounds across the globe, but when you add in the fact that the crystals are doubly terminated like Herkimer quartz, you have a combination of attributes that simply can't be ignored by enthusiasts.

Colors

Colorless, Yellowish, Brownish

Petroleum-quartz classification

CommonName

Petroleum Quartz

Species

Quartz

Variety

Petroleum Quartz

Colors

Colorless, Yellowish, Brownish

AlternateNames

GemstoneGroups

KeySeparations

Refractive index, appearance, birefringence, optic character and optic figure. A bull's-eye optic figure is determinative for quartz; may also show Airy's spiral optic figure and Brazil-law twinning under crossed polarizing filters.